No Cities Left

by

The Dears

Edit

or do you just sit down with a notepad and no. 2 pencil and just look for other artists to compare to every time you get new music? Damn, I think this cd is pretty !@#$'in good to me!

Yes, I grew up listening to the Smiths and Blur and I love alot of Brit-pop. I think you can hear a 'lil bit 'o Morrissey in Murray's voice but I don't hear Damon Albarn. I can definately hear the differences and the music is not like either to me! The music is beautiful! There are all the normal instruments; guitar, bass, & drum as well as strings, synths, and the occasional horn. And there is a female and she spreads the love in her vocals. And I love how they play off each other vocally in a couple songs. As someone else mentioned, it DOES NOT have the wit of Morrissey or Mr. Albarn. But you know what, this is the Dears NOT Morrissey. He has a new album that is great as well, and if I want to listen to him then I'll pop that in. I hope these guys finally get some recognition and stop being compared to everyone else. I think if you are influenced by other great artists it will come through in your work somewhere. And I am SOOOOOOO glad that there is good music coming out of North America right now...Please support good bands like these and pull your heads out yo' *&$es trying to be cool...Beautiful and romantic music.

I forgot that a friend had given me this album so I added it to my mp3 player and put it in the playlist. It's been playing with a mix of other bands on shuffle. I like the songs well enough, but I kept thinking perhaps I'd accidentally added a Blur album I never listened to. I had to look up this band to see if it was a super group with Damon Albarn sort of like an English equivalent of Reindeer Section. Imagine my surprise when I found out it isn't a super group and Damon Albarn isn't involved. Those other reviewers who said that the singer never sounds like Albarn have obviously only ever heard two Blur songs - 'Song 2' and 'Girls and Boys'. If these are the only songs you've ever heard by Blur, then no, The Dears do not sound like Blur, but if you've ever listened to an entire Blur album, you'll clearly hear Blur's influence on this band - especially on the song 'Warm and Sunny Days'. There are also definitely influences from The Smiths/Morrissey, but to me the resemblance to Blur was striking.